Ohio News Briefs

CINCINNATI (AP) — City officials have given homeless individuals 72 hours to vacate a downtown encampment in Cincinnati, citing health and safety issues.

About 40 people were handed notices Monday morning that said officials will close the site located under an overpass. Residents have until Thursday morning to gather their belongings and leave, before officials begin to sanitize the area Friday.

Acting City Manager Patrick Duhaney says crews will remove hazardous items such as makeshift bathrooms, contaminated syringes and soiled mattresses. A notice posted says any remaining items will be considered abandoned.

Officials will then block off the area. The current plan is to add fencing, lighting and other landscaping to permanently prevent people from returning.

Duhaney adds that city officials are working with social services to find temporary housing for those displaced.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office says Robert Lamont Woods was escorting patrons to their cars outside O’Toole’s Irish Pub and Grill in Columbus around 3 a.m. Saturday when a vehicle pulled up and the occupants opened fire.

Woods was struck and taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police have described the suspects as being in their early to mid-20s.

A search for them is ongoing.

State honors 1st documented black pro-football player

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The state of Ohio has approved legislation that will create a day to honor the first documented, black professional football player, known by the nickname “the Black Cyclone.”

Republican Gov. John Kasich signed the legislation designating Feb. 3 as Charles Follis Day. The Akron Beacon Journal reports Follis was born on Feb. 3, 1879, and grew up in Wooster — helping to organize the first varsity football team at his high school in 1899.

After graduation, Follis played with an amateur Wooster team and in 1904 he signed a contract with the Shelby (Ohio) Blues of the American Professional Football Association.

He suffered a career-ending injury a few years later and began playing baseball before he died from pneumonia in 1910 at age 31.

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee donated money to Ohio Democrat

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — President’s Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court once donated money to the Ohio Democrat who is currently running for governor.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh donated $250 to now-gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray’s unsuccessful bid for state attorney general in 1998. The newspaper reports Kavanaugh also donated $1,000 to Cordray’s failed bid for U.S. Senate in 2000.

Cordray and Kavanaugh both worked at the law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, in Washington D.C. They both also clerked for retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy — though not at the same time.

Kavanaugh also donated to many Republican candidates over the years.

Cordray has criticized Kavanaugh’s nomination saying the pick underscores the need for a governor who will “fight back against attempts to undermine our rights.”